Warsaw signs pledge on childcare as part of the European Pillar of Social Rights

Warsaw became the 11th city to pledge to the European Pillar of Social Rights.
Deputy Mayor Pawel Rabiej signed a strong commitment to principle 11 on
childcare and support to children.

Warsaw is committed to increase by 15% the number of children under 3 years of age attending childcare by 2023. To achieve this, Warsaw will invest over €71.5 million in 2019-2023 to improve access to and quality of early childhood education and care by:

making childcare free of charge as of 2019; if no place is found in public childcare, the city is paying for a place in private childcare facilities

building 36 new public (municipal) crèches with 5,000 extra places (in addition to the existing 64 crèches and 12 mini municipal crèches with 7,389 places)

buying approximately 4,000 - 6,200 places in non-public crèches

organising initial training courses to attract people to work as carers and/or establish their own business in the field of childcare for children under age 3

organising continuous development training courses to improve the skills and competences of educators in early childhood education and care

These measures are part of Warsaw's Family Programme to increase the network of childcare options in the city and, in this way, create the conditions for better work-life balance for parents.

Warsaw’s Deputy Mayor Paweł Rabiej said: “A Europe stronger in social terms is a Europe of active residents and open metropolises. Warsaw is a city which makes all its residents feel welcome, irrespective of their place of birth of views. In the years to come, we will focus on creating conditions for improving quality of life for all our residents, including the most vulnerable people”.

This is part of the EUROCITIES initiative ‘Inclusive cities for all: Social Rights in my city’. This initiative aims to build political momentum among cities to get mayors and deputy mayors to implement the principles of the European Pillar of Social Rights at local level. EUROCITIES will continue this campaign throughout 2019 as part of its strategic partnership with DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion under the Employment and Social Innovation programme. We aim to gather pledges from many more cities on different principles of the European Pillar of Social Rights. We will officially launch this campaign during a political event at the European Parliament on 21 February 2019 on the theme 'From principle to action: How to implement the European Pillar of Social Rights at local level?’